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Author Topic: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works  (Read 283422 times)

Scott Hargis

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #200 on: May 29, 2015, 03:42:02 pm »

Shipping your gear only works if you've got nothing else to do for a few days before and after the gig. Also, ship it to whom? Not ever client is OK with storing your stuff, even overnight. And then you've got to plan on extra time after the gig to take it all to a Fedex or UPS or whatever drop-off point, which depending on where you're going could mean spending an extra day there....which means another night of hotel and meals and car rental.

That's the problem also with renting gear on location. Even assuming the local rental house actually has what you need (tell them you need a 1000-watt strobe and they'll substitute a 1000-watt hotlight. And think it's totally OK. Voice of experience, here), you are going to have to go pick it up, and then return it. Translates to extra nights in a hotel and can eliminate the savings.

ACH DIGITAL

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #201 on: May 30, 2015, 12:43:12 pm »

Yeah sounds reasonable Scott. I added a Bowens 3000w/s power pack and 2 heads to my load, it was practically never used and works as charm, but is heavy. Two month ago I rented 2 Profoto 2400 Power Plants and they were so heavy. So thinking about these kind of equipment is that I worry.
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Chris Barrett

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #202 on: May 30, 2015, 02:17:55 pm »

I find packs frustrating for interiors, they really limit where you can place lights.  I went to monoblocks 20 years ago.  The Profoto D1's are hard to beat.  I initially bought ten, but have scaled my kit down to six.  I get 4 in a case (Versaflex MU 1720's offer more protection than the Lightware I used before) with cables and it's under 50lbs.

David Eichler

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #203 on: May 30, 2015, 03:08:18 pm »

I would like to know specifically why people these days are using pack strobes, either exclusively or in combination with monolights, versus only monolights for interior/architectural work. I can think of some reasons, but I would like to hear various people's specific reasons for their own photography.
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Chris Barrett

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #204 on: May 30, 2015, 04:16:09 pm »

Personally, I can't imagine.  Let's say you get a Profoto Acute setup, which is their cheapest and lightest.  For a 2400ws pack and three heads it's $6300 and 27lbs.  If you get 3 D1 1000ws mono's, you're at $4850 and 19 1/2 pounds (plus an extra 600ws of power!).  The D1's also give you truly independent head control with digital variators at 1/10 stop through the range.

It was a no-brainer for me.

IMHO,
CB

David Eichler

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #205 on: May 30, 2015, 04:24:06 pm »

Personally, I can't imagine.  Let's say you get a Profoto Acute setup, which is their cheapest and lightest.  For a 2400ws pack and three heads it's $6300 and 27lbs.  If you get 3 D1 1000ws mono's, you're at $4850 and 19 1/2 pounds (plus an extra 600ws of power!).  The D1's also give you truly independent head control with digital variators at 1/10 stop through the range.

It was a no-brainer for me.

IMHO,
CB

Okay, well, two reasons I could think of would be that, in some situations, it might be more convenient or effective to have more power coming from a single light source, and large pack strobes can put out more power than the most powerful monolight; and, if you need to put a strobe on a boom, you don't need as much weight to balance it with a pack head, compared with a typical monolight.
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gazwas

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #206 on: May 30, 2015, 07:31:21 pm »

I would like to know specifically why people these days are using pack strobes

I shoot with Bron Move battery packs and the main reasons why I like this pack better than a mono is independence from the mains and a biggy is the size of (or lack of) the heads. I can alao plug in my Pulso and Unilites into them and have full compatability with all existing modifiers. I also like the bare bulb of the Bron's or Pro/Acute head over the D1/B1.
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Scott Hargis

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #207 on: May 30, 2015, 09:00:08 pm »

I've gone back and forth on it many times over. Now, I have some of both....for some reason. I think mono's are much harder to "hide" in small places than the little Road Heads I use on my Dynalite Pack (1600 watts; 7.2lbs. Road heads are less than 2lbs each). Without the bulk of the Monoblock I can squeeze them into a smaller profile.

JoeKitchen

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #208 on: May 31, 2015, 08:37:31 am »

I prefer packs and heads (or maybe that is just what I have and do not know any better).  Like Scott, I like the smaller profile of just a head and have been able to fit them into pretty tight spaces.  Also, having the ability to pump a full 2400 w/s through one head can be an advantage.

Something else I have been told (and I am not sure if this is true), a pack's motherboard and capacitor will likely last longer and be more durable then one in a mono block.  

Last, I did look at the latest Profoto mono's when they came out.  Somethings I found kind of annoying was you could not do straight up ceiling bounces, and you could not directly attach their reflectors and soft boxes without a dome adapter.  I found this kind of odd.  

With that said, I do like the overall lighter weight of the mono's.  

Also, the reason I could go with Profoto was because my girlfriend and I split the price of the lights and share them.  She is a studio shooter and would not want to use mono's. 
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Chris Barrett

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #209 on: May 31, 2015, 09:35:40 am »

I think it can also come down to what you shoot and your particular needs.  Since I do a lot of commercial spaces which are larger, I have to be able to separate my lights, often over great distances.

In the shot below I have one head coming through a silk in mid-ground right.  Two more through silks mid-ground left.  There's another in a softbox in the back, backlighting the tall white chairs and the last is a direct head raking across green furniture behind that.  This would have required 4 packs, each with it's own head.  With 4 or 5 monos scattered through the scene, all I need to do is find AC power.  I rarely seem to find myself needing to hide a strobe.  I also mix in a lot of hotlights, mainly Dedo 150's, so those are my smaller, hideable units.

Scott Hargis

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #210 on: May 31, 2015, 12:29:41 pm »

Chris, that makes perfect sense. Even using head extension cables I can only get things so far apart (and then there's the issue of hiding the cables).
Residential work rarely brings up any such issue, but for sure it's a problem in bigger spaces, and as I'm starting to get more of that kind of project I'm going to have to adapt.

David Eichler

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #211 on: May 31, 2015, 02:17:03 pm »

Curious about how often you need a lot of power with strobes that you are hiding in tight spaces. Wouldn't something like Quantums work well for this, and be a lot lighter too overall in the kit? Of course you can use the packs for more things.

And, re. spreading out pack heads with extensions, aren't you losing a lot of power that way? Perhaps not such a big deal with 3,000ws packs these days, but perhaps with more compact packs?
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Scott Hargis

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #212 on: May 31, 2015, 09:31:22 pm »


In the shot below I have one head coming through a silk in mid-ground right.  Two more through silks mid-ground left.  

Chris, how are you stretching those? You're not carrying around a bunch of hollywood frames, I assume. Do you just tie it off to existing stuff (desks, columns, doorknobs etc.) or are you doing lightstands, or what? I've been clamping mine loosely between 2 lightstands but it's pretty sketchy, even with some sand on the stands.

David Eichler

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #213 on: May 31, 2015, 11:58:03 pm »

Chris, how are you stretching those? You're not carrying around a bunch of hollywood frames, I assume. Do you just tie it off to existing stuff (desks, columns, doorknobs etc.) or are you doing lightstands, or what? I've been clamping mine loosely between 2 lightstands but it's pretty sketchy, even with some sand on the stands.

Between lightstands without a crossbar? Why not just use a crossbar that you would use to create a background stand and just clamp to that?
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Chris Barrett

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #214 on: June 01, 2015, 07:46:35 am »

Between lightstands without a crossbar? Why not just use a crossbar that you would use to create a background stand and just clamp to that?

We carry 2 12x12 silks.  I got background kits from Calumet meant to support 12' seamless.  What's nice about these is that when the stands are lowered (with silk attached) and the silk is clamped up to the crossbar, one person can move the whole shabang.  Only usable indoors, though.

ACH DIGITAL

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #215 on: June 01, 2015, 10:29:19 am »

I mainly rely on Elinchrome monolights.
In some locations I have needed 2 or 3 powerful lights, mostly when pushing light through outside windows and that's when the packs had come come into play.
Some examples:

For this image I used 3 power packs, 2 profit 2400 and 1 Dynalite 1600 coming from the left windows at full power, and 3 monolights coming from the right.



This image I had 2 power pack coming from the right at 1500 ws and 6 moonlights in different places to the right.



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Scott Hargis

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #216 on: June 01, 2015, 12:44:22 pm »

We carry 2 12x12 silks.  I got background kits from Calumet meant to support 12' seamless.  What's nice about these is that when the stands are lowered (with silk attached) and the silk is clamped up to the crossbar, one person can move the whole shabang.  Only usable indoors, though.



Awesome. Think I'll DIY up something along those lines, thanks! I've been tying/clamping/taping/handholding my rags and it's getting pretty old.

Chris Barrett

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #217 on: June 01, 2015, 01:08:27 pm »

The kit I got had a collapsible crossbar.  We carry them in these long Lightware cases, two of them on the left side of this shot.  Each case holds 3 tall stands, 1 crossbar, 1 12x12 silk, 2 smaller diffusion panels (3x6) & some other odds and ends.

Craig Lamson

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #218 on: June 01, 2015, 07:39:17 pm »

The kit I got had a collapsible crossbar.  We carry them in these long Lightware cases, two of them on the left side of this shot.  Each case holds 3 tall stands, 1 crossbar, 1 12x12 silk, 2 smaller diffusion panels (3x6) & some other odds and ends.



I've had a similar set for a couple of decades but I took the crossbar and opened the holes on the end up a bit so it would fit easily over the top of a standard Manfrotto/Calumet light stand lug.  That way I could take 2 extra standard stands and they could do double duty.  The stands that came with the background set were pretty much useless for anything else.
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Craig Lamson

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Re: Recent Format Agnostic Professional Works
« Reply #219 on: June 01, 2015, 08:03:31 pm »

For years when I had the studio I used Speedotrons, big-heavy packs but powerful and durable.  I was mostly a hot light guy so the strobe only got used when people were involved.

Fast forward to the new reality....the studio is gone, and I shoot entirely on location.  I started by trying to continue to do the hot light thing but a dark space and plenty of power were uncommon in a standard factory environment.  I know I had to go strobe.

Forget the speedos :)  I needed small.  Even though many think they are silly I found the Alien Bees to perfect fit.  They are small...I can hide them almost as easily as a Pepper.  They are light, easy to pack, really durable and best of all the price almost makes them disposable.  Not that you would need to do that since Buff's service  is simply amazing and cheap.  A head that crashes to the floor from the top of a 13 foot stand costs 75 bucks to repair, not counting the tube and model light.

We travel by mini van and space is still at a premium since we need to carry all the props to shoot two trailers a day.  That means 18 plastic tubs of props plus computer and photo equipment.  I carry 12- AB1600.  I can get 5 heads, cords and 7" reflectors in Lightware V4000 view camera case.  I do that times two.  I also carry 2 AB1600 with a Vagabond Mini Battery in a Lightware MF1217.  The 12 heads and the battery cost $4800.00  Not bad for a lot of lightweight light.
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